


From Distaff to Spindle

by Cinco



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Fairy Tales, Other, gen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-21
Updated: 2011-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-27 16:45:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/297930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinco/pseuds/Cinco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A full-on AU fairy tale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Distaff to Spindle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pathstotread](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pathstotread/gifts).



> Prompt: Nathan/Audrey as a reverse fairy tale, modern day or otherwise. Could also be Nathan/Audrey/Duke OT3, but really, inclusion of Duke in any capacity is acceptable.
> 
> I am really into how Audrey and Nathan subvert typical gender roles in a lot of ways. Though Nathan is strong and competent, Audrey is the one with real power, the one whose touch wakes him from his stupor, the one upon whom the fate of Haven rests. Feel free to make this as realistic or as fantastical as you like. If you want to go full-on AU fairy tale, please, go right ahead! If you'd rather keep it modern day and focus in more on Audrey and who she is to the town and Nathan and the Troubles, that would be great too. I have an abiding need for these two to make out, but I also adore them as partners, so please make it as shippy as you're comfortable with. I also love Duke, and his relationship with these two. If you can fit him in, OT3 or otherwise, that would be excellent.

Once upon a time. It's an old-fashioned beginning for a story, but tradition means a lot to the residents of Haven, and they love their old fashions. Sometimes custom and tradition are the only things that can get you by when everything is in turmoil, and Haven has a lot of turmoil. You need to depend on whatever is solid enough to get you through, that’s tried and true. So: once upon a time.

Once upon a time there was a young prince named Nathan. Prince Nathan grew up in a beautiful kingdom by the sea. His parents, the King and Queen, loved him very much, and he had the run of the whole kingdom of Haven--from the rocky beach to the streets of the town, from the docks to the woods. The school, the church, the shops--he knew everyone and explored everywhere, often with his friend Duke at his side.

Duke's family lived on a boat and traded the fish they caught--along with anything else they happened to catch (some of it, perhaps, not strictly legally). Duke and his family met traders from all over the world, kingdoms near and far, and each of them sparked Duke’s imagination. He told Nathan all the tales they inspired, of jewels hidden in deserts, treasure chests buried at sea, kings’ ransoms secreted away in jungles and guarded by tigers. He spun stories of glass slippers, enchanted apples, and talking mirrors, of resourceful children who tricked witches or outsmarted emperors and found true love. Nathan was spellbound by Duke’s endless creativity, and the two of them were inseparable. They spent their days playacting, stealing buns from the kitchens and fruit from the orchard, and accidentally breaking anything especially decorative that was in the way of their games. The King and Queen weren’t always delighted with how Duke continually got Nathan into trouble with his mischievous ways, but the whole town knew that he had a good heart.

Times were good when Prince Nathan and Duke were children. The kingdom of Haven and its neighbors were at peace, the weather was mild and the crops plentiful. It was a time of rest and relief and cautious happiness for the residents of Haven. For, you see, the past had held times of great darkness for the Kingdom, referred to only when absolutely necessary, and always in hushed whispers, as The Troubles. Nathan and Duke had been born after them and only knew them as a vague, nebulous, possibly-fictional time when bad things had happened.

For months at a time they'd not remember that even the idea of the Troubles existed. Mentions of it were far enough apart that some days, under a warm sun and a fresh sea breeze, Nathan would think that not a single thing could have ever gone wrong in the beautiful kingdom of Haven. Between the delicious pastries made by Jo, the palace's cook, and the learned palace scribes, Vincent and David, and their glorious storytelling, how could Haven be a more wonderful place to live?

Slowly, as Nathan approached the age of majority, things began to change in the kingdom. His beloved mother, the Queen, passed away, breaking the King's heart and forever changing his relationship with his son and heir. Nathan was still his father's pride and joy, but all of the King’s emotions had faded, as if all the sweetness had drained out of life along with his wife’s presence. The stress of ruling the kingdom alone took an enormous toll on the King, and he and Nathan began to argue and misunderstand one another.

Times were difficult for Duke, too, as he was needed to take over more and more responsibility for the family business after his father was killed in an accident. Even when Duke was present, he and Nathan fought. The easy companionship of their youth had been replaced by something indefinable and immensely more complicated. Nathan had always been drawn to Duke because of his creativity and good humor, and he still was--but now he also found Duke frustrating and fascinating at once, especially since there was never enough time to truly sort out any of their many arguments. The endless afternoons of playing pirates along the beach or hunting for hidden treasure in the woods seemed almost like they’d never happened.

As Duke spent more and more time trading alongside his mother, Nathan struggled to help his father by assuming some of the royal duties. Nathan also struggled with his own loneliness, which was tinged with bitterness at Duke’s busy schedule. Haven was a smaller, sadder place without Nathan’s mother in it, especially after he and Duke grew apart, and most days it was difficult to recall the times that he’d walked along the beach with the sun on his face thinking that nowhere could be more wonderful.

One day, on a rare day off for each of them and an even rarer day when they weren't fighting, Duke took Nathan exploring in the hold of one of his family’s smaller cargo ships. Even though Nathan's father, the King, had warned them countless times to be careful, they rushed to examine the contents of Duke's latest shipment of goods for trade, likely procured from a far-off land, somewhere dangerous and strange. It was there, among the wooden crates and packing straw, that they found a spinning wheel with a sharp spindle that Nathan couldn't resist reaching out to touch.

You probably know what happened when he did. It's an old story, after all, because we love our traditions in Haven. Things happen over and over again, here and everywhere, and there's a reason some stories are classics. Nathan probably even knew the story too; perhaps it had been one of the Queen’s favorites, one she read to Nathan at bedtime or whispered in his ear to keep him entertained and quiet at a royal function. But still Nathan couldn't resist the pull of the sharp point of the spindle, of being a part of that ancient tale.

The cycle, the ritual, it was like a tide calling to him—to be a part of this story, just as he’d longed to be a part of so many of Duke’s tales when they were children. And what was the harm? Weren’t tales just tales, even in Haven, most of the time? So he reached out and pricked his finger, and fell into a long period of senselessness, of absence, of sleep. He functioned, to be sure: he woke in the mornings and worked and fished and conducted the kingdom's business just as he always had. But all the while some crucial part inside him was quiet, fallow--not missing but also not available.

Until the day that she arrived.

Nathan calls her Audrey, because that's her name, but it isn't her only name. She's Lucy, and Sarah, and other names too, names even she doesn’t know. She doesn’t know how she came to be in Haven, only that she’s been there before because the Kingdom needs her. She’ll travel the same journey over and over until she can solve the puzzle, help every Troubled person until there’s no one left that needs her. And to do it she needs Nathan. She trusts Nathan, trusted him almost from the first time he met her by the beach. He couldn’t help but take her to Duke, the other most resourceful person he knows, and Audrey trusts Duke now too, trusts them both to help her help everyone in Haven. Her faith in each of them slowly eases the knot of anger between them; Audrey leaves harmony and quiet behind her wherever she goes in Haven, almost as if she were spinning straw into gold.

Audrey is brave and steadfast and utterly dedicated to helping Haven’s people, and although Nathan loves that about her it’s almost beside the point. Her names, her pasts--none of it matters to Nathan. She's his Princess, whether she knows it or not, and even whether she wants to be or not. It is simple fact, like that Nathan is the Prince of Haven, and Haven is Troubled, and a Princess has to save them all. She’ll keep trying even if it’s impossible, even if she has to keep doing it over and over. Forever.

Maybe it can't be done, but when Audrey touches Nathan and he feels it, feels her smooth cool fingers on his arm or his cheek, he feels too that she can do it. If anyone can, Audrey can. Haven can heal from its troubles: Audrey can soothe them away like she does Nathan's, like she does Duke's. The three of them, together, can make their kingdom whole again.

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Yuletide! I hope you enjoy this. I was extremely inspired by your wonderful prompt, and I hope I have done it some tiny measure of justice.
> 
> Many thanks to my wonderful betas!


End file.
